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Awesome Arctic Animals

Answer: Walrus

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Aivik means walrus in Inuktitut.

Walruses, like seals and sea lions, are fin-footed mammals that spend most of their time in the water. Unlike other pinnipeds, though, walruses can walk -- and even run -- on the land, albeit not very gracefully. Their preference while on the beach, of course, is to lie around: after all, it's a lot of work to move a ton or two of blubber! Once they slip into the water, however, it's an entirely different story: there, these tusked sumo wrestlers transform into aquatic ballerinas.

Traditionally, walruses were used by Inuit people for several different things. The meat was eaten, the skin was used to make a whaling boat called an umiak and pieces of blubber were sometimes stuck on a stick or a bone and given to babies as pacifiers. According to an Inuit legend, the northern lights are the ancestors playing soccer in the sky with a walrus skull ball.

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